Elevator... to the Moon! Turbo Champion's Edition

Despite being the kind of guy who likes to buy every new console at launch, I have yet to dive into the new world of virtual reality. I've largely taken a wait-and-see approach, choosing instead to focus on the overwhelming selection of games designed to be played on my television. But as it turns out, I may not have been ready for VR, but VR was definitely ready for me. Developer ROCCAT Studios doesn't care if I own a headset or not, because they've decided to bring Elevator... to the Moon! to the Switch, and the results are decidedly mixed. Apparently, some things are better left in virtual reality.

When I first heard the name Elevator... to the Moon, I anticipated three things -- an elevator, the moon and an adventure with a goofy sense of humor. In that sense, this new Switch game does not disappoint. It's a silly story where you're chosen by the president to be the first to travel to the moon via a lengthy (and extremely dangerous) elevator ride. This game chronicles everything it takes to get to the moon, from assembling the elevator to dealing with the unforeseen problems involved with space travel.

Like I said at the top, this is a port of a VR game. Of course, you don't need me to tell you that, because everything about this game makes that fact blatantly obvious. This is the type of game where you stand in a small, enclosed area and rotate around the room picking up items and solving puzzles. The adventure is split into four separate chapters, each with their own set of point and click-style challenges to work through. This involves scouring the room for items and then using them to get yourself out of (and into) trouble.

As a VR game, all of these decisions make complete sense. This is an adventure that realizes that you can't move around very much, so instead they make it so all you have to do is turn around and interact with a lot of familiar items. But as a Switch game, Elevator... to the Moon feels like it came from another planet. This is not the way we normally control point and click adventure games, and some of the decisions they made to bring it to consoles are a little off-putting. Instead of being immersive, this Switch game comes across as simple to a fault.

The one thing that kept me invested in the adventure was the story. ROCCAT Studios has done a good job of fleshing out the world and characters in both obvious and subtle ways. I like how much we learn about the sitting president, Doug-Slater Roccmeier, a cartoonish hero who is best known for single-handedly destroying an asteroid that would have wiped out civilization as we know it. He has a goofy accent that sounds a lot like PewDiePie doing an impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. There's also a fun computer antagonist named VIDA, who takes control of the elevator early on and blows cigarette smoke through the TV's speakers. These two are a lot of fun to listen to and their fight is both entertaining and educational. There's more going on with this story than initially meets the eye.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

But no matter how good the chemistry is between Roccmeier and VIDA, it doesn't change the fact that this game doesn't work all that well outside of virtual reality. It comes across like a first-person adventure game where you can only walk two or three steps in any direction. In fact, it wouldn't change a single thing if they got rid of the walking mechanic entirely. I suspect a lot of the fun of this game is poking around the elevator and seeing what you can interact with, but most of that charm is lost when all you're doing is pressing a button. No matter what controller and setup you end up using, it's just not the same on the Switch.

Another problem is that the game is extremely short. I beat it in around an hour and a half, and that involves watching both endings. Part of the reason for this is because the puzzles are all extremely simple. Remember, you're stuck in a single room with only a few cabinets to search, so everything you need is within arm's reach. I have to imagine that, much like everything else in this game, the puzzles are a lot more fun to solve in virtual reality. I know I keep repeating this point, but there's no way around the problem that the gameplay loses something important when all you're doing is pressing a button on a control pad. The fun of this game is picking up items, investigating the elevator and feeling like you're immersed in this virtual world. You get none of that in this port, and the result is a short adventure game that feels entirely out-of-place on the Switch.